title: Environmental background assessment: basic principles and practice.
abstract: Background assessment is crucial in setting remediation and management goals, in identifying contamination trends and in providing screening tools for the selection of contaminants of concern. Legal requirements and guideline documents place great emphasis onto the establishment of background levels. This contribution discusses background estimates for metals and organics in relation to bioavailability and to its potential impact onto living systems. Methods for defining background in Environmental Risk Assessment are provided by the US EPA and by the Dutch Added Risk Approach. Cited case studies, taken from projects carried out in Italy and abroad, show that practical approaches vary significantly. A standardised database of soil, sediment and water background levels for different contaminants, as well as a more comprehensive guideline of background assessment, are urgently needed.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Ecologia,Università degli Studi della Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende (CS), Italy. nic.pacini@unical.it
authors.forename: Nic
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pacini
mesh_terms: D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000032:analysis*; D007558:Italy; D018570:Risk Assessment